In relation to my campaign for a community centre in Newton Farm, I thought it would be informative if I explained the reason for continuing to do so.

Firstly, the house building in the estate. Two hundred and fifty social housing homes bulldozed, and 262 homes rebuilt. How many of these are now for social housing? A lot of these houses are small in space. This will impact on children and their learning. Newton Farm being an area of deprivation has an impact on “education being a way out of poverty”. Global Partnership.org.uk states that 171 million people could be lifted out of extreme poverty with basic reading skills.

RELATED NEWS:

As ex-councillor Phil Edwards pointed out, this area looked like an area of deprivation.

Building new houses does not change the area, it just hides it and pushes more poor people into private housing, as Alan pointed out, electoral cleansing.

Not good news for them that the government has lifted the ban on landlords evicting tenants without cause.

Secondly, as reported with regards to The Hereford Academy area being targeted by county lines drug gangs. This has been going on for over 12 months. I know two families greatly affected by this. Deprivation is linked most strongly, a user less likely to get care/treatment and the chances of overcoming drug problems are less among disadvantaged people, (www.drugwise.org.uk)

This is just the start for tackling these problems.

Amelia Washbourne

Hereford

Let us know what you think. Send your comments to letters@herefordtimes.com